The God Who Responds And The Sin Of Hananiah.

Our Passionate God

One of the things that is extremely important to us as believers, is a right apprehension of the nature and character of God. If our trust in God's goodness or His beneficial disposition towards us is compromised, it leaves us vulnerable to spiritual seduction and demonic attack.

One of the things that is extremely important to us as believers, is a right apprehension of the nature and character of God. If our trust in God's goodness or His beneficial disposition towards us is compromised, it leaves us vulnerable to spiritual seduction and demonic attack. Satan is well aware of this, and in fact God's goodness and holy character was one of the very first things the father of lies attacked in the Garden. Quite some years ago, I was quite affected by Calvinistic theology and I can remember that over time it had the subtle but growing effect of undermining my trust in God's goodness and truthfulness. I lost confidence in God's gracious disposition toward me, and thus any confidence in praying for the lost, or any assurance that God was truly interested in saving them, and though I never verbalised it or thought about it in those terms till afterward, I realise now that I had accepted an inner portrait of God that depicted Him as even duplicitous. Praise God, he set me free from those evil teachings, and over the following years I began to learn about the character of God afresh. I am still learning of course.

The God Who Responds And The Sin Of Hananiah.

Our Passionate God

One of the things that is extremely important to us as believers, is a right apprehension of the nature and character of God. If our trust in God's goodness or His beneficial disposition towards us is compromised, it leaves us vulnerable to spiritual seduction and demonic attack.

One of the things that is extremely important to us as believers, is a right apprehension of the nature and character of God. If our trust in God's goodness or His beneficial disposition towards us is compromised, it leaves us vulnerable to spiritual seduction and demonic attack. Satan is well aware of this, and in fact God's goodness and holy character was one of the very first things the father of lies attacked in the Garden. Quite some years ago, I was quite affected by Calvinistic theology and I can remember that over time it had the subtle but growing effect of undermining my trust in God's goodness and truthfulness. I lost confidence in God's gracious disposition toward me, and thus any confidence in praying for the lost, or any assurance that God was truly interested in saving them, and though I never verbalised it or thought about it in those terms till afterward, I realise now that I had accepted an inner portrait of God that depicted Him as even duplicitous. Praise God, he set me free from those evil teachings, and over the following years I began to learn about the character of God afresh. I am still learning of course.

Recently I received two emails from good believing friends concerning non observance of Christmas based on the contents of two articles included below by Alan Franklin and Kevin Kleint. This is my considered response.

Blessings.

I have a very similar attitude as Alan & Pat Franklin towards Christmas. I do not celebrate it as such, recognizing that it’s commercial and aspects (largely borrowed from Pagan influences, such as 'mistletoe') have usurped the centrality of the Nativity. It is also a false method of bringing children happiness. As Moishe Rosen, founder of 'Jews For Jesus' stated: "Sana Clause (father Christmas) is a communist who dresses in red and only gives away things that other people pay for and corrupts children into thinking happiness comes primarily from material things.

As the bumper sticker says, "I wasn't born in Iowa, but I moved there as soon as I could." Well, I did live in Iowa for about ten years, and Boston is a long ways from Iowa. Who would have thought, a church that by many accounts is considered to be a cult, which has roots in Boston, would be operating within biking distance of our residence? Actually we live in Thailand now, but the International Church of Christ, which didn't start, but blossomed in Boston in the nineteen eighties to nineties, and has older roots going back to the nineteenth century (Alexander Campbell and associates roots), has even more influence here in Thailand than I've seen in Iowa (though maybe I just didn't see that influence there). I can think of at least five spheres of influence here in our city which are spreading the false doctrine of baptismal regeneration-- the belief that a person is not born again until they are baptized. In that belief salvation is water dependent, in contrast to the biblical doctrine that our sins are washed away by our Lord Jesus Christ's precious blood (Revelation 1:5).

Cultural illustrations can be helpful but only if taught in the light of the true accounts in the written Word.Â Putting cultural accounts on the same par as Scripture by using the mythology of pagan nations to replace what needs to be taught about Jesus Christ and the True God degrades the Bible accounts, in fact "blasphemizes" them.Â There is only one Name under heaven by which men may be saved, and there is only one Name of God, revealed by God Himself.

Islam as a world religion didn't burst onto the world scene until the 7th century AD. But in the 14 plus centuries since, it has played a major role in world affairs, as a foil to the Judeo Christian world, and a scourge on India, the Levant, Persia, Southern Asia, much of Africa, the Caucasus, and even part of China.

The reason I wrote this article based on Zech 14:9 is that I was reminded of how many so-called Christians, who are influential in the churches, are promoting the worship of God in the names of other gods.Â Here are just a few examples.

A surprisingly central feature of all the world"s religions is the language of light in communicating the divine and symbolizing the union of the human with the divine: Muhammed"s light-filled cave, Moses" burning bush, Paul"s blinding light, Fox"s "inner light," Krishna"s Lord of Light, BÃ¶hme"s light-filled cobbler shop, Plotinus" fire experiences, Bodhisattvas with the flow of Kundalini"s fire erupting from their fontanelles, and so on.53Light is the common thread that ties together near-death experiences as they occur in various cultures. (Leonard Sweet, Quantum Spirituality, pg. 146Â )

HARPAZO: The Intra-Seal Rapture of the Church

by James Jacob Prasch
Copy-Edited by D. E. Isom

When it comes to books devoted to eschatology in general and the Rapture specifically, they often either read like a formal academic argument written solely for the benefit of scholars or employ the use of fiction to avoid directly handling the underlying biblical text. As with Jacob's previous books and exhaustive list of sermons covering nearly every area of theology, Harpazo presents the doctrine of the Rapture and Resurrection in the strictest biblical sense possible, leveraging the handling of Scripture in the same manner as passed along to us by Christ through the Apostles and Early Church of the 1st century.